Didn’t like chopping and changing, tried to help captain deliver his vision, says Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid's coaching philosophy focused on continuity, stability, and creating a professional environment to support the team's success.

As Rahul Dravid bids farewell to Team India, the legend said that during his tenure as head coach, he abhorred chopping and changing the side too much and always tried to be a foil for skipper Rohit Sharma so that he could devise his own winning strategies.

Dravid's coaching stint came to an end with India winning the T20 World Cup in Barbados last week, defeating South Africa and bringing home the trophy for the second time after 2007.

"I'm someone who actually likes continuity and don't like to chop and change too many things because I believe that creates a lot of instability and doesn't create very good environment," said Dravid in a video posted by BCCI on July 6.

"I feel that I am a part of the team whose responsibility is to create the right professional, safe, secure environment that doesn't really have a fear of failure as such but is challenging enough to push people. That has always been my endeavour." Dravid said that the period when the players were coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic was a tough one for him as he had just taken over as coach and "never envisaged" that he would have to work with half a dozen captains.

"One of the things that we really had to manage, especially in the early part of my coaching tenure here with India. We were at the back-end of the COVID restrictions. "We really had to manage their workloads through all the three different formats. There were a few injuries and it led to me working with something like 5-6 captains in the first 8-10 months of me being here.

"It was definitely something that I hadn't envisaged, or not something that I thought about, but it just sort of organically happened." Under Dravid's tutelage, India thrashed England in the five-match Test series at home and the team also reached the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

While COVID put a lot of restrictions on players and they virtually lived out of a 'bubble case' at all times, the pandemic also had its up side as a lot of youngsters got a chance to be a part of the India team environment.